Coming in Spree 2.0 – Rearchitecting the Spree Core!

In this post, I’m going to cover a major rearchitecting of Spree, similar in size to the changes for Spree 1.0 (namespacing + cleanup), and Spree 1.2 when the auth component was removed and turned into spree_auth_devise.

In Spree 2.0, we’re splitting up the core component into three different pieces: Core, Frontend and Backend. This is due to a large number of requests from our users asking if they could just use the bare-essentials for Spree in one component.

Core

Core will contain the very basics of Spree; just enough to get going. This is what you would use if, for example, you only wanted the database structure of Spree and then to build your own frontend and backend on that. Core will also contain the Promo engine, which was used to manage promotions. This has been used by a lot of stores, and it makes sense to bake it right into Core, rather than having it out in its own separate module and then having it “hack” into Core.

Frontend

Frontend will contain the frontend of Spree; things like viewing products and the checkout process are contained within this module.

Backend

Backend will contain the admin functionality from Spree; things such as product data editing functions, taxons and promotion management.

The backend and frontend components also make use of the API component in order to perform some of their actions. You could also use the API to build a completely custom frontend for Spree, using a JavaScript framework such asAngularJS or Ember, if you wanted. With the ability to pick just the Core and API components with Spree, this has never been easier.

We’ll be offering a lot more detail about splitting the Spree core and other new features included in Spree 2.0 at SpreeConf DC May 20th – 21st in Washington, DC. Check out the full conference schedule. Register below to get the $199 early bird rate before it ends March 31st.